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Pandora is one of Saturn’s many baby moons, far too runty to form a sphere under its own gravity. Instead, this 52-mile across space rock looks more like a fossilized glob of silly putty in closest image ever captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Cassini is currently circling Saturn’s poles and skirting just outside the gas giant’s F-ring, in a series of dramatic “ring-grazing” orbits that NASA promised would give us an unprecedented look at some of Saturn’s smallest moons. And the spacecraft is already delivering on that promise. The image above was captured on December 18th, from a distance of...

Sunbeams—what a drag. That’s the conclusion of physicists trying to solve a longstanding mystery: why the sun’s surface rotates more slowly than its inner core. The team argues that energy radiating outward from the sun pushes back slightly as it is expelled, providing just enough resistance to put on the brakes. The hypothesis is supported by a new observation: that the thin “skin” of the sun rotates more slowly than layers just beneath. “I really can’t believe nobody has thought of this,” says Hugh Hudson, a solar physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the...

In a recent survey of mini-spiral galaxies, astronomers found a unexpected relationship between dark and light matter. The relationship is easy to measure yet impossible to explain using the Standard Model of physics. Researchers from Italy's International School for Advanced Studies conducted a statistical analysis of three dozen mini-spiral galaxies. Their work revealed a strong correlation between the organization of dark and regular matter in each galaxy. If, for example, ordinary matter was condensed at the center of a mini-spiral galaxy, so too was dark matter. If the bulk of regular matter was scattered across the outskirts of the galaxy,...

Dawn’s Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) determined the concentrations of hydrogen, iron and potassium in Ceres crust. In so doing, it was able to place constraints on the planet’s ice content, and how the surface was likely altered by liquid water in Ceres’ interior. In short, the GRaND instrument detected high levels of hydrogen in Ceres’ uppermost structure (10% by weight), which appeared most prominently around the mid-latitudes. These readings were consistent with broad expanses of water ice. The GRaND data also showed that rather than consisting of a solid ice layer, the ice was likely to take the...

Devious humans have given green lasers a bad name. Aiming a laser at an aircraft or the flight path of an aircraft is illegal according to a 2012 U.S. federal law. Jail time awaits offenders. Don’t point at a police officer either.... But if you mind your manners, a green laser is one of the best tools available to amateur astronomers eager to share the wonders of the night sky with the public. There’s simply nothing better to point out constellations, comets, individual stars and satellites in the night sky. Amateurs love ’em! So does the public. Go to a...

The new telescope chip. Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU ======================================================================================================================= Associate Professor Steve Madden. Credit: Australian National University =========================================================================================================================== Scientists have developed a new optical chip for a telescope that enables astronomers to have a clear view of alien planets that may support life. Seeing a planet outside the solar system which is close to its host sun, similar to Earth, is very difficult with today's standard astronomical instruments due to the brightness of the sun. Associate Professor Steve Madden from The Australian National University (ANU) said the new chip removes light from the host sun, allowing astronomers for the...

EEE Spectrum said that in working with KAIST, NASA was pioneering development of "tiny spacecraft made from a single silicon chip that could slash interstellar exploration times." ... Neel Patel in Inverse referred to ambitions "to create chip-sized spacecraft that could be shot off into space at ultra-high speeds and reach neighboring star systems within a generation's time." Patel said that out of five interstellar probes (Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and New Horizons), only Voyager 1 made it to interstellar space. Making it is not easy. Patel wrote how "deep space is riddled with intense bouts...

The latest findings in Earth science are brought to you by ancient astronomers who observed the heavens as much as 2,700 years ago. Thanks to hundreds of records of lunar and solar eclipses carved in clay tablets and written into dynastic histories, modern scientists have determined that the amount of time it takes for Earth to complete a single rotation on its axis has slowed by 1.8 milliseconds per day over the course of a century, according to a report published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. It may not sound significant, but over the course of 2½...

Blastoff of the Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS-8) mission for the U.S. Air Force is slated for 6:53 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2016 from Space Launch Complex-37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. WGS-8 will be delivered to a supersynchronous transfer orbit atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Medium+ rocket. The launch window runs for 49 minutes from 6:53-7:42 p.m. EST. You can watch the Delta launch live on a ULA webcast. The live launch broadcast will begin at 6:33 p.m. EST here: http://www.ulalaunch.com/webcast.aspx The weather forecast for Wednesday Dec. 6, calls for an 80 percent chance...

The sun looks like a proud, happy dad with a huge smile in new photos beamed back to Earth by a sun-staring spacecraft. The new images — taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory — show various features of the sun coincidentally coming together to look just like a face with a crooked smile and male-patterned baldness. All in all, this makes the sun bear a striking resemblance to Frasier Crane or perhaps your father. The smiley sun photo was first pointed out on Twitter by solar scientist Karl Battams after the Solar Dynamics Observatory's website was updated with the new...

Astronomers have set a new record, taking the measure of a tiny space rock just 6 feet wide. The researchers used four different telescopes on Earth to study the near-Earth asteroid (NEA), which is called 2015 TC25, during a close flyby it made of the planet in October 2015. "This is the first time we have optical, infrared and radar data on such a small asteroid, which is essentially a meteoroid," Vishnu Reddy, of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said in a statement. "You can think of it as a meteorite floating in space that hasn't hit...

THERE is a one in eight chance that the Earth will be hit by a huge solar storm by 2020 which could potentially leave the world without Internet, phone service and many more services that modern-day humans rely on. Researchers have warned that there is roughly a 12 per cent chance that a solar storm could smash into Earth by the end of the decade.(emphasis mine) The powerful event would likely be as huge as the Carrington Event, which occurred on 1859. The solar storm which hit 150 years ago was so powerful that its southern auroras could be seen...

The European Space Agency's new Mars orbiter just sent back its first high-resolution images of the Red Planet, and the view is amazing. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived at Mars on Oct. 19, when its companion spacecraft Schiaparelli crash-landed on the planet's surface. Since then, TGO has been circling Mars, testing out its machinery, and taking spectacularly sharp pictures of the landscape using its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS). ESA stitched together the best of these photos in a cool new flyover video. "The first images we received are absolutely spectacular ― and it was only...

Researchers suggesting that the speed of light varies have come up with a numerical prediction that will allow their theory to be tested. Many theories in physics are built upon the idea that the speed of light is at a constant rate, but João Magueijo and Niayesh Afshordi think otherwise. In a paper published in the journal Physical Review D, they detailed the creation of an exact figure on the spectral index, a model that can be used to determine if their theory is valid or not. All structures in the universe today were created when fluctuations occurred in the...

ydonia was first photographed by the Viking 1 and 2 orbiters. Between the two, eighteen images were taken of the region, all of which were of limited resolution. Of these, only five were considered suitable for studying surface features. Because of their limited quality, a particular mesa resembled a humanoid face (see below). It would be another 20 years before other spacecraft photographed the region as they conducted observations of Mars. These included NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, which orbited Mars from 1997 to 2006; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which reached the planet in 2006 and is still in operation;...

On November 30, Cassini will begin a phase of the mission that the science team calls “Cassini’s Ring-Grazing Orbits,” as the spacecraft will start skimming past the outer edge of the rings, coming within – at times — 4,850 miles (7,800 kilometers) of the rings. ... Between November 30, 2016 and April 22, 2017 Cassini will circle high over and under the poles of Saturn, diving every seven days for a total of 20 times through the unexplored region at the outer edge of the main rings. During the close passes, Cassini’s instruments will attempt to directly sample the icy...

http://www.koat.com/article/video-earthquake-researcher-uses-sun-to-make-predictions/8299193

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The full moon of November 14, 2016 is not only the biggest, closest and brightest supermoon of this year. It’s the closest supermoon since January 26, 1948. Should you watch for this full moon on the night of November 14? Sure, and, if you do, it’ll be beautiful. But, for us in the Americas the moon is closer to full on the night of November 13. The moon turns precisely full on November 14, 2016 at 13:52 UTC. This full moon instant will happen in the morning hours before sunrise November 14 in western North America and on many Pacific...

2. Scout the location carefully Use every tool possible to get the perfect shot, including Google Maps and compasses, to help you locate a spot where you'll be able to see the moon as well as the reference object you want to include. That may mean learning how to read a map, and finding out where the moon will appear on the horizon based on your location. If possible, travel to an area far from city lights to avoid light pollution. And make sure to be precise; Ingalls said he recalls setting up near Washington, D.C.'s Iwo Jima monument hundreds...